Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer congratulates his Michigan State counterpart, Mark Dantonio, after the Big Ten Conference Championship Game on Saturday. / AJ Mast/AP

Written by

Larry Phillips

News Journal

Larry Phillips

So Urban Meyer is human after all; he really can lose a football game.

Who would have thought such a thing?

Certainly not Ohio State fans, who have grown accustomed to Meyer mashing every foe in his path.

Incredibly, the Ashtabula product did just that, until Saturday in Indianapolis. Yet after digesting the unthinkable — a Jim Bollman-fueled offense chewing up a Luke Fickell-led defense — we are left with the residue of a Buckeye loss.

That it happened in the conference championship game, with a ticket to the national title contest on the line, made it even tougher to fathom.

But after a moment to choke back the shock, it’s far easier to accept. Meyer has turned in an incredible job.

The two-time national champion at Florida inherited a train wreck upon arriving in Columbus.

The Buckeyes were coming off a 6-7 season, saddled with the loss of three scholarships in each of his first three years because of what the NCAA deemed as repeated dishonest behavior by Jim Tressel, and were banned from postseason play.

How did Meyer respond to this mess?

In just three months, he turned an average at-best recruiting class into a nationally-rated, top-five group. He hired a gem in offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tom Herman, returned assistant Stan Drayton to running backs coach where he belongs, and brought in offensive line coach Ed Warriner — probably the best hire at that position in at least 20 years, maybe more.

That crew, with little more than quarterback Braxton Miller as a consistent offensive weapon, went about the business of outscoring every opponent in their first campaign.

In fact, only the postseason ban kept Ohio State from the 2012 Big Ten championship game (the Buckeyes beat both title game participants that season) and a date with Notre Dame in what would have been an incredibly winnable national championship game.

This year it was more of the same. The offense set school records for scoring and ranked among the national leaders in rushing, too. It fed high hopes and grandiose plans.

But Ohio State could not overcome a troubling defense. Watching the Buckeyes down the stretch, virtually every punt was in danger of becoming as catastrophic as a turnover. The defense simply was helpless to stop anyone.

Championship teams don’t have defenses that bad.

Meyer and Co. covered for it with offensive brilliance. In retrospect, it probably was better to fall short to Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook in a tight loss than to be destroyed by near-certain Heisman winner Jameis Winston and Florida State in the BCS title game.

In point of fact, the Buckeyes and the Big Ten in general still are sporting a black eye from being outclassed first by Meyer and then by LSU in Tressel’s national championship poundings from 2006 and 2007.

Adding to that list of destruction would have been crippling for the conference and Ohio State. It will be tough enough for the Buckeyes to weather the Orange Bowl storm that Clemson, star quarterback Taj Boyd and super receiver Sammy Watkins surely will bring on Jan. 3.

With Miller returning at quarterback — hard to imagine he’s even on a draft board after his passing stats in the past four games — the Buckeyes have a strong starting point in 2014. Meyer’s recruiting classes will begin funneling through the system after that, and Ohio State should be off and running, or passing and consistently scoring.

Maybe it’s still early, but somewhere down the line we’ll look back on this 24-game winning streak and truly appreciate what Meyer and Co. have done.

The Buckeyes are in an outstanding place. They have the right coach at the right place in his career at just the right time.

There will be unexpected losses along the way — there always are. But Ohio State is set up to be one of the nation’s elite programs going forward, which is the way it should be.

Larry Phillips is the sports editor for the Media Network of Central Ohio. He can be reached at lbphillips@nncogannett.com or 419-521-7238.